This Knowledge and Learning Note discusses regional collaboration on education in the Arab world. Regional collaboration on Education is arguably more challenging, comparatively speaking, in the Arab World than in other regions of the world.
... انظر المزيد + There are many reasons for this which this brief spells out. In education, it is true the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region had initially made great strides after Independence in improving access, equity, and completion outcomes. However, as far as regional collaboration on education is concerned, national policymakers largely worked to address domestic concerns alone with only little external assistance, mostly because the education sector was considered to be entwined in national interest and identity. This brief offers current trends and examples of the state of education in the MENA region including examples of programs and main focal points to achieve higher educational standards.
رؤية أقل ـ

While education stocks (measured as the number of years of schooling attained per person over age 15) have risen significantly in all regions, they have risen the fastest in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
... انظر المزيد + This note documents this remarkable regional achievement. This brief shows that all 15 MENA countries for which we have comparable data increased their education stocks over time. As well as trends in population weighted averages for education stock across regions.
رؤية أقل ـ

The Ombudsman Bureau in Jordan was established in 2008. It was created to provide an avenue for redress by citizens for complaints against public sector bodies - part of the Governments drive to improve the public sector.
... انظر المزيد + Such a body is important in providing checks and balances in a government dominated by a strong executive branch. It also provides an alternative process of dispute resolution to filing cases in courts, thus relieving pressure on the court system and providing a means of redress that may prove more accessible than the courts for certain categories of disputes.
رؤية أقل ـ

The Syrian war and the subsequent emergence and spread of the Islamic State (ISIS) have transformed the Levant in ways one could not have imagined prior to 2011.
... انظر المزيد + As the numbers of dead and of refugees and internally displaced kept climbing, and as families were torn apart and neighborhoods were turned into war zones, economies slumped and regional economic ties broke down. The shock of these events, henceforth referred to as the Levant conflict or war, has changed the region in profound ways, yet there are no systematic evaluations of its economic impact. Our objective was to address this gap and quantify both the direct and indirect economic effects of the war on the countries in the greater Levant--Turkey, the Syrian Arab Republic, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and the Arab Republic of Egypt. It is important to note that the analysis in our paper does not factor in several types of costs. The authors do not assess the cost of delivering basic services to refugees in receiving countries; these costs could be substantial for Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. The costs of replenishing depleted human and physical capital in Syria will also be sizable. The authors also ignore important dynamic investment-growth links that may amplify the effects discussed here.
رؤية أقل ـ

Developing countries will be increasingly important players in the quest to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. By 2035, non-OECD countries will account for 66 percent of primary energy demand and, in the meantime, for 90 percent of growth in demand.
... انظر المزيد + Among the steps necessary to ensure that carbon capture and storage fulfills its potential to cut emissions are more powerful policy incentives, including a global carbon price; testing of new technologies in demonstration projects; and development of storage infrastructure.
رؤية أقل ـ

Although the payment models offered by off-grid energy companies are less flexible than those implemented with great success by mobile telephone companies, they may still have an important role to play in scaling up off-grid energy services for billions of people who lack access to electricity.
... انظر المزيد + More research is needed to assess the importance of flexible payments in attracting reliable low-income customers.
رؤية أقل ـ

Population growth and economic development, aggravated by climate change, will increase pressure on energy and water resources. Integrated planning can make the most of these two essential and scarce resources.
... انظر المزيد + Thirsty Energy, a World Bank initiative, helps countries address these issues and ensure sustainable development of both resources. This note focuses on the water needs of the power sector and particularly answers the following questions: Why is this issue important? Do power plants need all that much water? What about other types of plants? What are the challenges? and, What are our options?
رؤية أقل ـ

Wind and solar energy is a fast-growing share of the global energy mix. But integrating them into power-system operations requires significant adaptations to compensate for their variability.
... انظر المزيد + Solutions include increasing the amount of flexible generation within the system, combining, and dispersing variable resources to smooth aggregate output, expanding the transmission network, using smart technology to control supply and demand, and storing electricity.
رؤية أقل ـ

This MENA K&L Quick Note highlights the key lessons learned from the workshop entitled: Procurement Under Public private Partnerships (PPP): A Learning Event for the Water and Energy Sectors, held in Beirut, Lebanon on October 13-15, 2014.
... انظر المزيد + The event was organized by the Governance Global Practice Team at the World Bank Office in Beirut in coordination with the Public-Private Partnership Cross Cutting Solutions Area (GPCDR-PPP-CCSA). The event provided a platform to expose clients to best practices on PPP procurement, particularly in projects, sectors, and countries with upcoming PPP operations, as well as in countries that are exploring the possibility of utilizing PPP arrangements and are interested to learn more about the approach and the legal framework to support it.
رؤية أقل ـ

Incorporating energy from renewable resources into power system planning is an important issue. As countries generate more energy from renewable sources, that energy must become part of the power-system planning process.
... انظر المزيد + In 2004, investments in all forms of clean energy represented about 20 percent of total global investment in generation capacity. By 2011, that share had topped 40 percent. This paper explains the various reasons behind the push for renewable sources, chief among them being reducing climate-altering emissions. The paper answers the following questions giving a brief synopsis of each: What is the key challenge? What solutions are available? What are the key lessons learned. A few case studies are also used throughout to illustrate key points.
رؤية أقل ـ

This brief examines planning for access to electricity. That electricity for all campaigns around the globe often fall short of their targets is partly a failure of planning.
... انظر المزيد + In the area of generation and transmission, technical changes could improve the handling of key constraints, such as fuel availability, funding, and the rate of building. Planning for distribution networks could be improved by gathering data on end-use demand and deploying geospatial tools. Most important of all, the entire planning process from generation to distribution must be better coordinated if access plans are to be successful.
رؤية أقل ـ

The world's urban population is expected to increase by about 2.7 billion by 2050. Virtually all of the increased population will be in developing countries, leading to massive needs for new and improved housing and urban infrastructures (UNDESA 2012).
... انظر المزيد + The planning and design of these new developments will reshape or create new urban landscapes with significant implications for energy consumption, infrastructure costs, as well as the livability and social and economic resilience of cities. Studies of cities around the world indicate that a city's livability and its level of energy use are closely linked to its physical form, namely the spatial distribution and dimensions of buildings, streets, and parks, as well as the spatial coordination of residences, jobs, social services, and environmental amenities.
رؤية أقل ـ

As Dubai has grown over the last two decades, the demand for private education has grown with it, a reflection of the number of expatriates settling in the city and the various curricula on offer to cater to expatriates.
... انظر المزيد + Given the city-state's unique context (in which a majority of the population are expatriates, not Emiratis), the immediate challenge for this new public institution was to identify an appropriate approach for regulating a private education sector. It was the central tenets of this approach, dependent essentially on oversight rather than intervention, which appealed to the knowledge and human development authority (KHDA) and so the policy framework from that report was adopted, adapted, and put into place in Dubai. The KHDA has returned to the World Bank requesting a review of the governance initiatives. A World Bank team, working in close collaboration with counterparts in the KHDA, and in consultation with the wider stakeholders in question (private school owners, heads, teachers, and parents), completed the review and the findings are presented in this report.
رؤية أقل ـ

Hydropower development makes an essential contribution to reducing poverty, boosting shared prosperity, and improving sustainability. Water storage associated with some hydropower projects can also make important contributions to water and food security and to climate resilience.
... انظر المزيد + The World Bank Group (WBG) thus uses multiple instruments to support sustainable and responsible hydropower projects of various sizes and types, depending on local need. But hydropower can also carry significant risks that must be carefully managed. Supporting sustainable hydropower is important for the World Bank Group, because hydropower potential exists where electricity is most needed. Hydropower production is the least-cost method of providing electricity in many developing countries. The WBG is committed to helping its clients continuously improve the way they approach hydropower so as to better manage its risks and better share the benefits of this renewable resource. Support for hydropower helps manage risks and can yield local, national, regional, and global benefits. Sustainable hydropower has three dimensions: physical, financial, and social/environmental. While a large amount of progress has been made on sustainability, particularly over the last decade, new challenges continue to emerge or become more pressing. These include: 1) securing multiple benefits from investments in hydropower; 2) managing cascades of projects to optimize additional benefits or to prevent exacerbating negative impacts; and 3) developing a more sophisticated understanding of land and water interactions.
رؤية أقل ـ

For cities that want to take concrete actions on improving energy efficiency, it is essential to understand what, where, and how big the potential energy-saving opportunities are, what measures are needed to capture the savings and at what costs, what the implementation constraints are, and how priorities should be set given local capacity and resources.
... انظر المزيد + An energy efficiency assessment can provide the necessary clarity on these issues. Energy efficiency assessments can be done at different depths and with varying scopes, depending on the city's needs, capacity, and resources. The duration and cost of the assessment depends on the quality of existing data and the size and complexity of the sector. This guidance note provides an introduction to the objectives, scope, and outputs, as well as the basic steps and approaches of conducting the three types of energy efficiency assessments.
رؤية أقل ـ

This quick note highlights the key discussions and recommendations made during the high-level development exchange held in Djibouti on June 20-23, 2014.
... انظر المزيد + The event was co-organized by the World Bank office in Djibouti and the ministry of economy and finance under the high patronage of the President of the Republic of Djibouti. The event provided a platform to promote dialogue, share knowledge, and develop policies to eliminate poverty and enable a dynamic private sector. It aimed to strengthen Djiboutis capacity to define, through a concerted open dialogue, a path to sustainable development, and ensure that growth translates into poverty reduction, jobs, and economic opportunities for all. The experiences of Cape Verde, Mauritius, and Dubai, also demonstrate that the small size of the Djiboutian market, along with the high cost of electricity, do not constitute binding constraints to economic development. It is critical that serious consideration be given to the recommendations made during the roundtables. To this end, the implementation of sector-specific five-year plans by the Government of Djibouti should include, to the extent possible, consultations between private and public actors and civil society.
رؤية أقل ـ

While circumstances vary by country, there are some generic principles for Public Financial Management, or PFM reform. For this quick note these principles were drawn from the personal experience (within and outside the World Bank) of the author as well as selected readings presented at the end of the note.
... انظر المزيد +رؤية أقل ـ

Although child mortality rates have declined all across the developing world over the past 40 years, they have declined the most in the Middle East and North Africa region.
... انظر المزيد + This quick note documents this remarkable experience both at the country and regional levels. This paper shows how child mortality rates (measured as the number of deaths of children fewer than five years of age per 1000 live births) have declined in the 17 MENA countries for which we have data for the period 1970-2010. It is clear from the figure that all MENA countries experienced substantial declines in child mortality rates over the past four decades. What also stands out from the figure is the phenomenon of convergence. The gap between countries with high mortality rates and those with low mortality rates narrowed substantially between 1970 and 2010, suggesting the former have been converging with the latter.
رؤية أقل ـ

Many cities of developing countries are experiencing rapid growth of motorized transportation. This is leading to severe congestion, which, in turn, is reducing productivity.
... انظر المزيد + Road accidents have been increasing. Transport emissions have become a major contributor to severe air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The main cause of these problems has been the increasing preference for personal motor vehicles for commuting to work and getting around the city. In many countries, urban development practices have worked in favor of such preference, leading to urban sprawl. Thus, remedial measures have to focus on reversing the preference for such modes of travel, shifting to public transport, cycling, or walking, and building and retrofitting cities to minimize the need for private automobiles. The objective of this guidance note is to present a systematic, practical, and comprehensive approach to dealing with the problems of urban transport. It outlines a framework of possible interventions and demonstrates how such interventions relate to the overall objectives of improving mobility and energy efficiency as well as reducing air pollution and road accidents. Thereafter, it highlights a range of cross-cutting issues that need to be addressed and also suggests steps to create an enabling environment to move towards a sustainable urban transport system. Its target audience is the city-level leadership and key decision makers responsible for sustainable urban mobility.
رؤية أقل ـ

Recent episodes of global financial stress have underscored the importance of individual banks to the stability of their own or even the global financial system.
... انظر المزيد + Against this backdrop and to respond to the need of World Bank Group staff for a wider diagnostic toolkit, we have developed the BRI, an icon set in the form of a traffic light to enable preliminary analyses of individual banks' financial soundness in the region, and an Excelbased spreadsheet tool (FRIM) to facilitate its calculation and presentation. A back-test based on actual developments in the Tunisian banking system suggests that the BRI is able to accurately differentiate banks according to their financial health. The impact of the global financial crisis on banking systems and banks in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has highlighted the importance of differentiating across countries and among financial institutions. While the region avoided systemic banking distress, the crisis had a stronger impact on countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council, where financial systems were more globally integrated and banks more overextended. Countries elsewhere in the region, including transition countries, weathered the crisis better. However, protracted economic weakness is likely to have a significant impact on several banking systems and banks, which can have profound consequences for credit intermediation and ultimately economic growth and job creation. This underscores the need for better tools to monitor financial risk and vulnerabilities in MENA.
رؤية أقل ـ